MVID – microvillus inclusion disease

A disease that may affect children born out of consanguineous marriages ( of the same blood ).

Currently, children with MVID disease have no treatment and mostly die premature as babies as they suffer from malabsorption of nutrients and huge fluid loss due to chronic diarrhoea.

Microvillus inclusion disease prevents the absorption of nutrients from food during digestion, resulting in malnutrition and dehydration. Affected infants often have difficulty gaining weight and growing at the expected rate (failure to thrive), developmental delay, liver and kidney problems, and thinning of the bones (osteoporosis).

Some affected individuals develop cholestasis, which is a reduced ability to produce and release a digestive fluid called bile. Cholestasis leads to irreversible liver disease (cirrhosis).

Children, who may survive the initial threat requires lifelong nutritional support  which is given through intravenous feedings (parenteral nutrition). Even with nutritional supplementation, most children with microvillus inclusion disease do not survive beyond childhood.

In News:  Indian researchers have finally found an ideal animal model ( Zebrafish )to study MVID.

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